Term limits divide Democratic 13 congressional candidates

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 04:59:14 CDTBy: IPPR

The candidates seeking the Democratic nomination in Illinois’ new 13th Congressional district have different opinions about term limits. Bloomington doctor David Gill and Greene County State’s Attorney Matt Goetten took part in a debate last night. Gill,who is running for the US House of Representatives for the fourth time, says he support term limits for members of Congress:

Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.

“Just as we passed an amendment in 1951 to term limit presidents, we should do the same. A lot of my friends tell me the downsides to it. I think the upside outweighs the downside. ”
Meanwhile, Matt Goetten says he would oppose a constitutional amendment for term limits. He says there’s a lot of institutional knowledge that could be gained by serving in office over a long period of time:

Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.

“I don’t know if term limits…how many would it be…I just don’t see us getting to the threshold that we need to get to to even have that be an issue.”

Gill and Goetten are competing in Tuesday's Democratic Primary. The re-drawn 13th Congressional District stretches from Champaign-Urbana west to the Mississippi River and to the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis.